❓ Ms. Davies questions the Minister for Industrial Relations about the lack of face-to-face consultations in key agricultural regions regarding the Work Health and Safety Bill. The Minister defends the consultation process and emphasizes the need for cultural change in the agricultural industry due to high workplace fatality rates.
AnsweredQoN 713Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
AGRICULTURE —
WORK HEALTH AND SAFETY BILL
713. Ms M.J. DAVIES to the Minister for Industrial
Relations:
I have a supplementary question.
Thank you, minister. I appreciate the minister's great concern around
the agricultural sector and the new legislation. Why then, as part of this
consultation, has the minister omitted opportunities for face-to-face
consultation in the wheatbelt and the upper great southern, which covers the
majority of the agricultural region in which the issues the minister has raised
are concerned? Why are they not included on the consultation list and why have
they been prevented from contributing in face-to-face consultation with the
minister's department?
WORK HEALTH AND SAFETY BILL
713. Ms M.J. DAVIES to the Minister for Industrial
Relations:
I have a supplementary question.
Thank you, minister. I appreciate the minister's great concern around
the agricultural sector and the new legislation. Why then, as part of this
consultation, has the minister omitted opportunities for face-to-face
consultation in the wheatbelt and the upper great southern, which covers the
majority of the agricultural region in which the issues the minister has raised
are concerned? Why are they not included on the consultation list and why have
they been prevented from contributing in face-to-face consultation with the
minister's department?
AnswerView source ↗
They have not been. I am not exactly
aware of all the decisions of the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and
Safety on the process that it is going through to do consultations but I say to
the member, again, that I have already engaged in consultations with the rural
industry. I have engaged directly with Safe Farms WA about its program and I have just highlighted the fact—I
am sorry that I missed the correct name—that I am going to one of the field days to continue that consultation. Let us not underestimate the
challenge here. We have to have a major cultural change in the agricultural
industry. The agricultural industry, unfortunately, is not accepting its
current legal obligations. It is 10 times more likely that a worker will be
killed in the agricultural sector than in the mining industry. Those people who
pretended to represent agricultural industries need to join with the government
in accepting the challenge of the need for cultural change in that industry.
aware of all the decisions of the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and
Safety on the process that it is going through to do consultations but I say to
the member, again, that I have already engaged in consultations with the rural
industry. I have engaged directly with Safe Farms WA about its program and I have just highlighted the fact—I
am sorry that I missed the correct name—that I am going to one of the field days to continue that consultation. Let us not underestimate the
challenge here. We have to have a major cultural change in the agricultural
industry. The agricultural industry, unfortunately, is not accepting its
current legal obligations. It is 10 times more likely that a worker will be
killed in the agricultural sector than in the mining industry. Those people who
pretended to represent agricultural industries need to join with the government
in accepting the challenge of the need for cultural change in that industry.
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